An atom holding a set of
ligands in a spatial arrangement which is not superposable on its mirror image. A
chirality centre is thus a generalized extension of the concept of the
asymmetric carbon atom to central atoms of any element, for example
N+abcd,
Pabc
as well as
Cabcd.
Source:
PAC, 1996, 68, 2193
(Basic terminology of stereochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996))
on page 2203
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
